Windows AzureCustomer Solution Case Study

Siemens Expands Software Delivery Service, Significantly Reduces TCO

OverviewCountry or Region: GermanyIndustry: Professional services—High tech

Customer ProfileSiemens is a global powerhouse in electronics and electrical engineering, operating in the industry, energy, and healthcare sectors. The company has around 410,000 employees and a worldwide reputation for innovation and achievement.

Business SituationTo deliver software more efficiently, reduce costs, and get more complex software packages to more devices, Siemens wanted to expand the capacity of its software distribution system.

SolutionSiemens used the Windows Azure™ platform to deliver software packages from a central Internet-based storage location to thousands of devices for many different customers.

Benefits Reduced capital risk High scalability Reduced operating costs

“Our first estimates show that we can reduce our TCO by a factor of 10. The software distribution system we built with Windows Azure is 10 times cheaper than our previous solution.”

Elmar Stoecker, Director Portfolio Management, Siemens IT Solutions and Services

Siemens—a global powerhouse in electronics and

electrical engineering, operating in the industry, energy

and healthcare sectors—has built a worldwide

reputation for innovation and technical achievement.

Siemens IT Solutions and Services developed a system

for remote service of more than 80,000 devices

worldwide. An additional service enables its users to

distribute software packages to devices spread around

the globe through virtual private network connections.

To make these software updates and installations more

efficient, reduce costs, and deliver more complex

software packages to more devices, Siemens is now

able to use the Windows Azure ™ platform for devices

directly connected to the Internet. The company now

can dynamically scale its global software distribution,

while reducing costs, enhancing services, and avoiding

significant new capital investment.

SituationWith headquarters in Berlin and Munich, Germany, Siemens is a global powerhouse in electronics and electrical engineering, operating in the industry, energy, and healthcare sectors. The company has around 410,000 employees around the world. In fiscal 2008, Siemens had revenue of €77.3 billion (approximately U.S.$113.8 billion) and a net income of €5.9 billion (IFRS).

Siemens IT Solutions and Services is an internationally leading provider of IT solutions and services. It covers the entire IT service chain from a single source, from consulting to the management of IT infrastructures. In addition, Siemens IT Solutions and Services extends the range of offerings of the other Siemens Sectors to include IT solutions. Siemens IT Solutions and Services employs more than 41,000 people and posts annual sales of €5.3 billion (U.S.$7.8 billion), of which over 70 percent are generated outside of the Siemens Sectors.

To help control costs and offset the decreasing availability of facilities and computing resources, Siemens IT Solutions and Services developed the common Remote Service Platform (cRSP), a remote services system managed through a large server infrastructure in three data centers around the world. Siemens uses the cRSP to remotely support more than 80,000 devices worldwide. The cRSP includes a software distribution service that sends out software

releases and updates to devices through virtual private network (VPN) connections, without requiring on-site maintenance support.

In the future, new fields of application like video streaming or large-scale software updates will necessitate a solution that is easy to scale up and down in response to traffic and demand inside and outside of Siemens. To meet these requirements with cRSP in its own on-premises data centers, Siemens had to build a large server infrastructure to handle peak loads. This large server infrastructure would be underutilized during period of lower demand.

“Having the whole system implemented in-house had made it expensive to distribute software,” says Elmar Stoecker, Director Portfolio Management at Siemens IT Solutions and Services. “We wanted a solution we could implement rapidly and that would give us more agility.”

Up to now, the growing amount of software which distributed to devices around the globe caused significant effort as software packages had to be transferred via VPN connections and across firewalls. Customer firewalls had to be configured for VPN connections by administrators, and Siemens IT solutions and Services had to make sure VPN server capacity was available in the data centers. Both efforts increased the total cost of ownership (TCO) for the VPN based solution.

“From a technical point of view, the primary challenges we wanted to meet were smooth integration to the existing platform, scalability, reduced complexity, and higher security. From a business point of view, flexibility and the cost factor were key drivers.”

Elmar Stoecker, Director Portfolio Management, Siemens IT Solutions and

Services

Wanting to make software updates and installations more efficient, reduce costs, and deliver more complex software packages to more devices, Siemens IT Solutions and Services began to investigate new technology that would make it easier to expand the capacity of the cRSP. It needed a solution that would deliver the functionality of the existing software distribution mechanism, reduce configuration effort for customers, help prevent unauthorized changes to complex software package orders, and be supported by a reliable world-wide communication infrastructure.

“From a technical point of view, the primary challenges we wanted to meet were smooth integration to the existing platform, scalability, reduced complexity, and higher security,” says Stoecker. “From a business point of view, flexibility, and the cost factor were key drivers.”

SolutionSiemens decided to develop a software distribution using a “cloud computing” model. Now the company is able to store and manage its software packages and distribution information using computing resources hosted on the Internet (the “cloud”) through an external data center.

Siemens IT Solutions and Services participated in a Microsoft® Technology Adoption Program so it could immediately begin using the Windows Azure ™ platform , an

Internet-scale cloud services platform hosted in Microsoft data centers, to transfer software packages from a central storage location to thousands of devices for many different customers.

Siemens chose the Windows Azure platform because it offers high availability, a scalable infrastructure with a pay-as-you-go pricing model, the Windows Azure cloud services operating system, and a set of developer services that it can use individually or together.

Multicomponent SoftwareDistribution ServiceThe company can now replace the existing software distribution system and VPN connections with a new multi-component software distribution service hosted on the Windows Azure platform. Within the Siemens intranet, a SAP system generates orders for software distribution. Based on Microsoft SQL Server® data management software, Siemens IT Solutions and Services developed an application called Software Delivery Manager (SDM) that gathers orders from the SAP system and coordinates the orders with software packages extracted from a repository.

SDM then uploads the orders and packages to the Software Delivery Service (SDS), which uses Windows Azure Storage for software packages and the Microsoft SQL AzureTM database as a service for management data. SDS notifies the Software Delivery Client (SDC) at the

“By temporarily storing software packages on Windows Azure, we have much less expensive storage capacity than we could maintain in our own data center.”

Elmar Stoecker, Director Portfolio Management, Siemens IT Solutions

and Services

customer sites when software packages are available for download. SDC downloads and installs the software packages on individual devices, and notifies SDS of completion status.

Finally, SDS relays feedback to SDM and the SAP system regarding the download and installation processes and provides billing information, including the amount of Windows Azure capacity utilized.

“With Windows Azure, we don’t have to connect the end devices to the data centers,” says Stoecker. “Now we have a central location where we store the information, and the customers can decide when to download the software.”

Data StorageSiemens stores its order-processing and management information in SQL Azure which is synchronized with references to Windows Azure Blob Storage holding the software packages. By separating management and bulk data, Siemens can dedicate load balancing of management Web roles. Load balancing of Blob Storage is achieved automatically by Windows Azure Storage. The company uses Shared Access Signatures to secure the access to software packages for customers without providing them the shared access key for the Windows Azure Storage.

“Developing the application management logic on SQL Azure

allowed fast and seamless migration and internal code reuse. So we could use the same data model in the cloud as we do in our on-premises repository,” explains Gerald Kaefer, Architect at Siemens. This enables Siemens to use a single code base which is easier for the company to manage than two separate sets.

BenefitsBy taking advantage of the Windows Azure platform, Siemens IT Solutions and Services is developing globally available software distribution as a service, while reducing its operating costs and avoiding significant new capital investment.

The company can scale its solution dynamically to meet demand and pay only for the computing and storage capacity it needs, only when it needs it. Now, Siemens IT Solutions and Services can serve its customers better by introducing enhanced solutions and services in less time and at less cost.

Reduced Capital Risk Siemens has reduced its risk on infrastructure investment in a changing market by using the Windows Azure platform. By not having to invest up front in a physical infrastructure capable of meeting peak demand, Siemens is on track to lower its TCO and create economies of scale.

“Our first estimates show that we can reduce our TCO by a factor of 10,” says Stoecker. “The software

“Most of our developers are experienced with Visual Studio tools. That was a good argument for using the Windows Azure platform, because we can use the same development environment.”

distribution system we built with Windows Azure is much more scalable and cost efficient.”

High ScalabilityNow Siemens can quickly and easily scale its software distribution system up or down. It can use the storage and processing power it needs when it needs it, to store, distribute, install, and monitor software packages for its industrial appliances around the world. Then it can scale down, using and paying for fewer computing resources during periods when demand for processing capacity is low. Overall distribution time could be reduced significantly.

“By knowing how many orders we have to send, we could derive the number of Windows Azure computing resources we need in advance,” says Kaefer. “Transferring the data directly from Windows Azure Blob Storage allows automatically seamless scaling and avoids costs for additional façade Web services hosted in Web roles.”

Reduced Operating CostsBy replacing its physical infrastructure with Windows Azure computing and storage resources that can be managed flexibly, Siemens will reduce its operating costs significantly. By no longer relying on VPN connections, it can spend less on system administration and licenses for system management tools over time. Siemens can also use pay-per-use pricing to gain flexibility and maintain cost transparency across orders and customers and reduce the

cost of maintaining the capacity it needs.

“By temporarily storing software packages on Windows Azure, we have much less expensive storage capacity than we could maintain in our own data center,” says Stoecker.

Enhanced Customer ServicesWith its new delivery model based on the Windows Azure platform, Siemens IT Solutions and Services can offer improved services and quality to its customers. For instance, it can offer cost flexibility and save customers money with fast, easy software trials and quick responses to increased demand. The company anticipates introducing new services more often, based on its new software distribution system.

Familiar Development Environment According to Stoecker, “The solution we built with the Windows Azure platform is not only more cost-effective, but also has been much simpler to implement than our previous system.”

Siemens IT Solutions and Services is familiar with the Microsoft Visual Studio® development system, and it used that technology to deploy its Windows Azure–based software distribution system. “Most of our developers are experienced with Visual Studio tools,” says Stoecker. “That was a good argument for using the Windows Azure platform, because we can use our known development

environment based on SQL Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008, and Visual Studio Team Foundation Server.”

Windows Azure PlatformThe Windows Azure platform provides an excellent foundation for expanding online product and service offerings. The main components include: Windows Azure. Windows Azure

is the development, service hosting, and service management environment for the Windows Azure platform. Windows Azure provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage Web applications on the Internet through Microsoft data centers. In addition, Windows Azure serves developers’ connectivity needs through the following services. The Service Bus connects

services and applications across network boundaries to help developers build distributed applications.

The Access Control Service provides federated, claims-based access control for REST Web services.

Microsoft SQL Azure. Microsoft SQL Azure offers the first cloud-based relational and self-managed database service built on Microsoft SQL Server 2008 technologies.

To learn more about the Windows Azure platform, visit: www.windowsazure.com

For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:www.microsoft.com

For more information about Siemens IT Solutions and Services products and services, visit the Web site at: www.siemens.com

Additional Resources:Download: Windows Azure Tools and SDKView: Architecting and Developing for Windows Azure

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published November 2009

Software and Services Windows Azure Platform

− Windows Azure− Microsoft SQL Azure− Windows Azure Tables − Windows Azure Storage − Blob Storage

Microsoft Visual Studio− Microsoft Visual Studio 2008

Microsoft Server Product Portfolio− Microsoft SQL Server 2008